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LIUNA on Status of Highway Bill Reauthorization in Congress

Statement of Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LIUNA, on the Status of Highway Bill Reauthorization in Congress

“With the Jobs and the Safety of Americans at Risk,

Congress Must Feel Compelled to Act”

Washington, D.C. (June 25, 2014) – Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – made the following statement today on the status of Highway Bill reauthorization in Congress:

With the jobs and the safety of Americans at risk, Congress must feel compelled to act on a long-term Transportation Reauthorization bill, and not just a short term extension. A fourth of America’s bridges are deficient or obsolete. Poor road surfaces, such as potholes, are now a contributing factor to a third of traffic fatalities, needlessly costing approximately 10,000 lives every year.

That is why LIUNA has been traveling through Congressional districts across the country with its crushed “getting schooled in infrastructure” bus, carrying a replica of a chunk of fallen bridge. The symbol has resonated with Americans from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Michigan, attracting crowds, elected officials and news media who believe Congress must pass a long-term, full-investment Highway Bill this year.

While there appears to be movement on ensuring that the Highway Trust fund does not go bankrupt by the end of this summer, Congress has no valid excuses to not act on a long-term plan. There are multiple viable options which would end the duct-taping of our failing roads and bridges and provide the long-term investment our nation, our people and our economy needs. If Congress fails, it will be due to cowardice in standing up to extremists who are willing to destroy the critical transportation infrastructure of our country to make an ideological political point.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has found the will to work in a bipartisan manner to pass its piece of the reauthorization. It is time for the rest of the Senate and House of Representatives to do the same.

Our failing transportation infrastructure does not discriminate by political party – we are all affected. We should be able to expect a bipartisan solution.

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See LIUNA’s campaign to press for long term, full investment in our roads and bridges – including radio ads, billboards, online action and the “Getting Schooled in Infrastructure” school bus tour – at www.FixOurBridges.org.